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AME RIC AN AS S O C I ATI O N O F P H Y S I C I S TS I N M E D I CI N E We advance the science, education and professional practice of medical physics
AAPM Column VOLUME President’s 37 NO. 1
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012
AAPM President’s Column Gary A. Ezzell, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale
T
his is my 35th year as a medical physicist. Like many of my generation, I came into this field sideways, after entering graduate school expecting to do something else. As this generation is experiencing, finding my first job was difficult. Ultimately it turned on a stroke of good fortune as much as my own efforts. Life, as we know, is so often that way. We prepare for what we think will happen, and then we live with what does, and do the best we can. So, 35 years after learning that physicists work in medicine, I find myself writing this article as AAPM President. This is an honor that also owes much to fortune; one that I will do my best to uphold. There are many good examples to follow, the most recent being Tony Seibert, who has completed his term as President and now is our Chairman of the Board. He and Mike Herman, our outgoing Chairman, represented our profession well as intense public attention was focused on errors in diagnostic and therapeutic uses of radiation. Mike was also instrumental in initiating AAPM’s strategic planning efforts and in creating structures that will keep our Board involved in strategic thinking over the long term. The cycle continues. John Gibbons has completed his term as Secretary, and he carried out his duties with commendable efficiency and initiative, as well as keeping our Executive Committee’s deliberations on target. Beth Schueler now joins EXCOM as Secretary, and John Hazle as President-Elect. They too will Included in this issue: be good stewards of our Association, of that I am sure. Stewardship of our profession is a responsibility that all of us share. None of us works alone. In my daily work I make use of concepts, techniques, and protocols developed by predecessors and contemporaries. As a therapy physicist, I make use of TG-51, published in 1999. The AAPM website lists 68 published task group reports since 1999. There are 70 active task groups and 234 active committees; you can see the list with the charge and status of each task group at http://www.aapm.org/org/structure/report_stats. asp . 14.5% of our membership work at least one national group, and that does not include those who serve chapters. Our Association is remarkable for its degree of participation in the advancement of medical physics. This Association, and the work we do through it, is important. AAPM is our primary organizational tool for working together and learning from each other through meetings, reports, and publications. It is the primary venue for medical physicists to provide and obtain the continuing education we all need to
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